Luckily, the woman who fielded the telephone call last week became suspicious when the caller with a foreign accent asked what payment she received and directed her to buy $600 worth of iTunes cards in order to unlock more than $6500 in back payments.

The woman, who receives an allowance for caring for her husband on a disability support pension, is worried vulnerable pensioners, particularly the elderly or confused, will be sucked in by the realistic-sounding calls, which included background noises similar to a call centre.

The sophisticated scam started with the caller asking the woman to confirm her personal details similar to the security questions asked of people when they ring Centrelink, banks or insurance companies.

He even told her a date she and her husband had started receiving payments, which was close to the mark.

The caller directed her to buy iTunes cards to the value of $600 and to tell the department store staff the cards were family gifts, because if she said they were for a business or Centrelink they would rip her off by charging another $50.

The woman was given directions to ring back and quote the i-Tunes card numbers in order to make an appointment to see Wagga Centrelink staff a couple of days later.

“As soon as he mentioned iTunes I thought ‘ this is not right’,” the woman told The Daily Advertiser.

“I went straight into Centrelink and asked a staff member about it and she said it was a scam and to call the police.

“I drove to the police station and they gave me a number to call to report scams – 1300 795 995.”

The Department of Human Services is warning people to be aware of the growing threat of scam emails, phone calls and Facebook messages pretending to be from the department.

Scams can be reported to SCAMwatch.gov.au.